Pakistan’s largest metropolitan city, Karachi, is grappling with water scarcity due to a lack of appropriate preventive policies and actions. The issue has been brought into focus by various stakeholders at the workshop titled Strengthening City-Wide Partnership to Promote Collective Action for Water Stewardship (SCWP), which took place recently in Karachi, as stated on Pakistan Point News – 2nd Dec, 2024.
During this gathering of diverse entities—including representatives from the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency and the Karachi Water & Sewerage Corporation along with religious leaders, civil society members, academia experts like those at NED University, as well as private sector professionals—the participants pinpointed local water-related challenges.
Dr. Conor Linstead, a Freshwater Specialist from WWF-UK stressed on the need for an inclusive platform that would foster collaboration among these diverse stakeholders, thereby promoting effective stewardship of water resources and addressing local issues through collective efforts. He sees this as key to developing innovative solutions in resilience against such challenges while also supporting equitable resource utilization and environmental conservation which contributes positively towards socio-economic development within the region, according to Pakistan Point News – 2nd Dec, 2024.
Aftab Chandio, Chief Engineer Sewerage at Karachi Water & Sewerage Corporation (KWSC), detailed their strategic initiatives for transforming water infrastructure in Karachi including rehabilitation of the Hub Canal and K-IV project—both pivotal efforts aimed to increase surface water availability. He emphasized these projects’ roles in enhancing capacity, which potentially might double available supplies as per Pakistan Point News – 2nd Dec, 2024.
As a part of WWF-Pakistan’s initiative for establishing an MSP (Multi Stakeholder Platform), the formation is contingent on developing a comprehensive SES to recognize and understand collective action platform necessity in Karachi as per Pakistan Point News – 2nd Dec, 2024. This would engage relevant stakeholders timely and effectively for water stewardship initiatives within four major working groups encompassing government sectors, academia experts like those at WWF-UK or NED University along with civil society organizations and private sector professionals as reported by Pakistan Point News – 2nd Dec, 2024.
The identified working groups were tasked to develop initiatives such as identifying and replicating Nature Based Solutions (NbS), scaling up water conservation techniques, and policy reforms among others for establishing a robust collective action platform in Karachi according Pakistan Point News – 2nd Dec, 2024.
